Independent film
- Two year pre-production to find poverty stricken locations in rural south, Ozark mountains.
- $2 million budget.
- $5500 spent on costume, swapped clothes with residents there.
- Film shot in several family properties (alyson, fox, cook).
- Unknown actors.
- Shot on high-res Red DV camera.
- Shot on location.
- Sound of voices and music of voices (poet realism).
Themes
- Family.
- Secrecy, silence and threat.
- Innocence.
- Relationships.
- Women and patriarchy.
Debra Granik
Background
- Made educational films for trade unions.
- reworked snake feed into first feature, "Down To The Bone", story of mother trying to overcome drug addiction.
- Granik and writer Ann Rosellini given pre-publication copy of Daniel Woodrell's novel, Winters Bone (2006).
Process
- Uses "organic, incremental process".
- Documentation of daily lives.
- Location shooting.
- Neo-realism
